Painter breaks down the Boilermakers' first-round opponent in the NCAA Tournament.

Nathan Baird/Journal & Courier

WEST LAFAYETTE — A few minutes after Purdue's name flashed onto the East Region bracket on the TBS Selection Sunday show Sunday night, the Boilermaker staff snapped into action.

Matt Painter and his assistant coaches worked their phone contacts throughout college basketball, hoping to gather morsels of information on first-round NCAA Tournament opponent Cal State Fullerton.

Video coordinator Nick Terruso had prepared for all of the teams Purdue possibly could have drawn in the opening round. Soon the coaches were pouring through stats and other data and watching the Titans' games.

Assistant coach Greg Gary said the staff left the basketball offices inside Mackey Arena around 2 a.m. Monday morning. They were back at it by 9 a.m.

Purdue, the 2 seed, doesn't play 15 seed Cal State Fullerton in Detroit until Friday afternoon. But the staff needed as complete a scouting report as possible by the time the Boilermakers practiced at 3 p.m. Monday.

"We know what they're doing," senior point guard P.J. Thompson said Sunday night. "We don't necessarily see it, we just see the end of it."

Shortly after the matchup was announced Sunday night, Painter said he didn't know anything about Fullerton, and wasn't familiar with its coaching staff or playing style.

"We will be," Painter said. "Give us time."

First, he and his assistants reached out to other Big West Conference coaches or others on Fullerton's schedule. That gives the staff some perspective on the data and video they soon begin to break down.

Painter starts with the most recent video and begins working his way backwards.

"You watch a couple more and keep working backwards until eventually you get to where things are just a re-run," Painter said. "Some people play differently versus different teams, but most people don’t."

Painter used to assign one coach to handle the scouting report on each upcoming opponent. In NCAA Tournament play, that meant the other two assistants could scout the potential opponents waiting in the next round.

A few years ago, Painter decided to split game-prep duties between all three assistants. Gary handles Purdue's offensive approach, Steve Lutz prepares a defensive plan and Brandon Brantley breaks down individual tendencies within the opponents' personnel.

On his radio show recently, Painter likened the approach to that of a football team using offensive and defensive coordinators. In the NCAA Tournament, however, that means the Boilermaker coaches focus 100 percent on the upcoming opponent.

The Boilermaker redshirt freshman discusses the fat lip he received from Isaac Haas in practice and anticipating his first NCAA Tournament action.

Nathan Baird/Journal & Courier

"It gives you the best chance to win the game in front of you," Painter said. "When you have people in your huddle thinking about future opponents instead of the opponent 30 feet away from you in their huddle, I think you're priming yourself to get beat."

Lutz, in his first year on the Purdue staff, said this is the first program in which he's been asked to take that singular focus. That role carries throughout the season.

"I think it allows you to stay focused on a part of the game and it allows you to probably help and give more input to the head coach on a specific part of the game," Lutz said. "Whereas you've got a million people throwing a million different ideas at you, pretty much when I talk to coach during a game, I don't talk to him about offense.

"It simplifies things. It keeps people on task and it keeps people organized."

Perhaps the biggest question to answer this week: How will Fullerton defend Purdue's Isaac Haas? The biggest member of Fullerton's rotation is 6-9, 230-pound Arkim Robertson. Typically, such opponents will double the post — something the Boilermakers have seen the Titans do on film.

Painter said film showed Fullerton will sometimes utilize a 1-3-1 zone and bring help defense from multiple positions.

Lutz has the opposite assignment this week. What does Purdue need to do to slow Fullerton guards Kyle Allman (19.4 points per game) and Khalil Ahmad (15.3)? The Titans are known for aggressively attacking the basket and earning trips to the free throw line.

Painter compared Allman to Rutgers' Corey Sanders, a guard who had some success against Purdue over the teams' three meetings this season. Ahmad complements Allman with an inside-out approach.

"They can break you down and get into a pull-up 3 or pull-up once they get an angle or get to the basket," Painter said.

Gary, in his seventh season on staff, experienced both approaches to game prep. While he wouldn't call one better than the other, he sees several benefits in the current method.

Different coaches on the same staff might use different terminology. The current scouting approach keeps that terminology consistent all season long in terms of the scouting report. Individual players also know which coach to go to with specific questions, which streamlines the message leading up to and during games.

"If I have something I'm not sure about or something I need to know more about, I can just ask that person," sophomore guard Carsen Edwards said.

The addition of graduate assistants changed Purdue's NCAA Tournament preparation in one way. Joey Brooks and D.J. Byrd are responsible for looking ahead to the next round. This week, that means scouting Arkansas and Butler.

Andrew McClatchey, also in his first year as the staff's basketball analyst, can begin pulling and crunching data on upcoming opponents.

Painter doesn't want to hear about anyone but Purdue and Fullerton, however, until Friday afternoon.

"If they bring up somebody else's name around me, I shut them up pretty quick," Painter said.